I am the Only Son of Nyx

Just as the High Priest said, the Kirinar Dark Forest is deadly dangerous.

It was a forest that even his tribe avoided—as the animals in there are bigger than normal and aggressive, the plants are filled with thorns and poisonous, and it was really easy for anyone to get lost in it due to its natural darkness.

But for Princess Diarbara, he went in without hesitation.

Equipped with leather armour, boots, gloves, and a big axe, Kai entered the dark forest.

Animals immediately attacked him. Jaguars, tigers, sun bears, black caimans, all kinds of wild apex predators—attacked him on sight. He fought them with an even more feral intensity. He had spent most of his life in the wild, and though he had changed, his body recognized this hostility.

Kai hacked the side of a tiger and opened up its belly.

He grabbed the lower and upper jaw of a jaguar and broke it with a wet crunch.

He wrestled black caimans and sun bears, killing them with brutality rather than swiftness.

Even as he fought these wild animals—on the ground, knee-deep in murky water, or in mud—the sound of Princess Diarbara’s desperate scream, one that he had never heard before in all the years he had known her, settled into his chest like a blade.

He could not forget it. Doubted that he ever could.

But if he were to be able to forget it, then he would need to save her from her dark fate.

It kept echoing inside his mind, bouncing around the chamber of his skull.

Anger, fear, and worry rose up from the pit of his stomach.

And the only way Kai could appease these emotions was through killing these wild animals.

Once the wild animals were dealt with, the dark forest tested him in another way. He needed to walk through an area that was devoid of any animals. Initially, he thought it was a good sign, but he was wrong.

Thorny vines found the gap in his leather armour and stabbed into his skin.

Floating roots barred his way like curtains, and he learned that it was poisonous—when one rubbed against his neck. Not to mention, the ground became muddy. Threading the flat outer area of the forest was already hard enough, but this was way worse.

Based on the High Priest, the blue apple was at the heart of the dark forest.

It was marked by a massive tree at the center of a clearing.

And though the tree should stick out with its size, five days is nothing at all to find it.

One moment, Kai was crouched in the shallows, scrubbing the itch from his skin. Next, he was locked in a savage struggle with another wild beast. They say only the lucky ones can walk out alive after entering this dark forest.

And now, he understood why.

He made a rush during daylight.

At nighttime, he continued carefully, forgoing sleep to keep moving.

Staying awake is hard, but he endured this torturous road for Princess Diarbara.

On the night of the third day, the Gods finally graced him with their blessing. He looked to the side and saw a clearing. Kai ran towards it with all his might, ignoring the wounds that were marring his body and the blood that got into his right eye.

He tripped on a thick root and leaned against a tree.

Each breath was a struggle, but when he looked forward, his eyes flickered with hope.

Just at the heart of the clearing stood a colossal tree, its trunk as vast as a temple. A dark hollow gaped at its center, and not far from it, a thick stalk rose from the damp earth with two glowing blue apples hanging from its twin branches like forbidden fruit.

"By the Gods, I found it!" Kai dragged his body forward.

It was already the third day, and he was growing desperate.

Now, hope returned to him.

Kai plucked one of the blue apples and reached out for the second, but a cold wind blew from inside the hollow center of the colossal tree. His hand paused, and without hesitation, he ran with one blue apple clutched in his hand.

He trusted his instincts, and they were telling him to run.

A few hundred yards away, an earth-shaking roar reverberated through the air.

Kai looked back, glad that he decided to run before whatever made that roar emerged.

It was said that a beast was guarding the blue apple.

He got lucky to be able to steal the blue apple without it noticing.

Incredible luck aside, Kai wasted no time retracing his steps. The return journey was far easier now since he knew the path, knew what lurked in the shadows. Only two days remained until Princess Diarbara was to be sacrificed.

Every heartbeat mattered.

Rain began to fall.

It was cold against his skin, biting deep into his bones.

"Just hold on for me, princess. Just hold on!" Kai ran with all his might; the silver ring that he made into a necklace dangled against his chest. "I have the apple. I can help you change your dark fate!"

A thudding sound echoed from the side.

Kai turned to look and saw a dark and round object on the ground.

That distraction caused him to trip and fall.

He quickly pushed himself up and lifted his head, but the dark forest was gone.

Now he was on all fours before a ruined temple on the outskirts of the capital—the blue apple still clutched in his hand. His body was a mess of bleeding wounds and caked mud. None of it mattered.

Kai felt nothing.

No, Kaelmorath felt nothing.

His eyes were fixed ahead, locked on the temple entrance.

Locked on the very person he had been fighting for—Princess Diarbara.

Just as she had been the first time he saw her in that prison, she was beautiful. Clean. Regal.

Her white hair stirred against the wind, pale as the moon above.

Her mesmerizing eyes were lifted skyward, fixed upon the Gods, and she did not look at him.

She did not greet him with her sweet smile.

And her petite body, there was no longer any of it. Tears carved burning trails down his cheeks as his gaze dragged lower, down the wooden stake—that had replaced her form, down to the blackened pyre beneath it, already collapsed into ash and charred wood.

Princess Diarbara had already been sacrificed.

Earlier, he had met with the High Priest and was sent to this temple.

He thought that she was still alive, but her head now sat atop the stake.

Only her head.

The wind stirred her white hair one last time, and Kai’s grip on the apple tightened.

Just from the condition of her head and the pyre, it was clear that Princess Diarbara had been here for days. Dead for days. And then the realization struck him like a lightning strike. He was the only person who believed that the King and High Priest would wait for him.

He was the only one who believed that he had the chance to change her fate.

And recalling Princess Diarbara’s face before he departed, he now realized something.

She, too, had known from the start that there was no saving her.

"Barbarian. Give up the apple, and lay down your weapon."

Kai rose to his knees and looked over his shoulder.

He saw a hundred knights in full plate had already surrounded him from behind.

They drew their swords and shifted their formation to the shape of a crescent moon—blocking any possible way to escape. Knowing how monstrously powerful their target was, this many men were needed.

"Barbarian?" Kai snickered and slowly rose to his feet.

He spun to face them, revealing eyes bulging and bloodshot, and tore open his torn-up leather armour, exposing his muscular chest. "You want this?" He raised the blue apple high with a nasty grin playing on his face, and then shoved it whole into his mouth and swallowed. "Then carved it from my stomach! Come at me, you pigs!"

Kai let out a roar and slaughtered one hundred knights that night.

By dawn, he was kneeling in the center of a hundred mangled corpses.

Devouring the blue apple had given him strength, elevating his strength to a monstrous level.

He could crush a knight’s head through the steel helmet, and even charge through walls.

It was incredible, but this strength didn’t give him any joy.

Kai looked down as more tears dropped to the ground. His vision became blurry. He wiped it away quickly, and when he looked up again, he was now lying on an open grassy field while staring at the sky.

He knew what Princess Diarbara meant by her last words to him.

Despite her grim fate, she didn’t want him to return to being a barbarian.

She wanted to keep on living and find peace.

Kai rose and made his way to a small hut nearby.

A glass pane caught his reflection as he passed, and he paused. His beard had grown long and unkempt, his face carved rougher by time and hardship. A year, perhaps two—it was hard to tell. But the man staring back at him was no longer the one from that night of slaughter.

Despite the time that passed, the burn inside his chest was still prevalent.

It was hard to imagine how hard it has been to live with this much anger and hate inside him.

But to honour Princess Diarbara’s last wish, he tried to keep going.

She didn’t want him to take vengeance. Didn’t want him to be the one who’d kill the King, the High Priest, and the people of the kingdom. That would mean returning to who he once was. Returning to the dark path that would only lead to destruction.

"I’m sorry, princess..." Kai muttered as he stared at the glass pane.

Roughly, the wore a brown cloak and weapon and rushed out from the small hut again.

And the moment his foot crossed to the other side, the grassy plain vanished. He was walking a paved road now, the harsh sun at his back. Peasants, wagons—and merchants glanced his way, then moved on, as if he were just another traveler passing through.

Soon, the fortified walls emerged in the distance.

It was the capital city, the one he had left after that night of slaughter.

Now, he has returned.

And he brought something else with him.

Screams and panic began to ring from behind, and the ground began to quake under his feet.

But Kai didn’t care.

He walked on until he stood before the reinforced wall—the soldiers above peered down at him like vultures. Without a word, he reached into his cloak and drew out a blue apple, lifting it high for all of them to see.

"Kingdom of Agnia, I have returned! And I brought destruction with me!"!

ROAR—!

A massive serpent exploded from the ground and soared skyward behind Kai.